Love and Tourism

Today is the day! The day we shamelessly act like the Americans we are, camera around our neck, confusion on our faces and map in hand. At least, we would have a map in hand if we knew where to buy one...

First stop? Red Square! We grab a coffee on our way and thankfully, the lady behind the counter knew some English. (Unlike last night at dinner, when I had my first espresso because the lady didn't know that I just wanted a regular 'ol cup of coffee.) The hike to Red Square is about a mile from our apartment, so we just took everything and everyone in while we sipped our coffee and tried cooling off. Yeah, cooling off. Anytime you go inside anywhere with a coat on, it is unbearably hot. So, most of the time, the weather outside really isn't so bad.

We get to The Kremlin and realize we don't know a thing about anything tourist-y. Remember, we're figuring out everything on our own, including tourist traps. So we keep a keen eye out for any place people are walking in to without a ticket. Mostly because we're tired of the hassle it always is trying to get anything without knowing the language. For today, we just want to be content seeing everything. We can map it out like responsible tourist later. For now, we're hippie-fly by the seat of our pants tourists. Very Bohemian.

What amazing buildings! St Basil's Cathedral is just as bright and beautiful in person as it is in all the pictures we're been pouring over the last eight months! And The Kremlin? So spectacular. You can turn in a complete circle in the center of The Red Square and still not take in all the beauty and detail of each building! I wish I could give a good history lesson, but that will have to be another post, because even if I had followed the elementary school field trip tour, I wouldn't have understood a word that teacher was saying... Will research immediately and give a better update.

From there we wandered. I really like wandering with Hubs. You learn a lot about someone when you do, you know. Like what stores grab their attention (or what large gun t-shirts do), how aware they are of their surroundings and what they notice about people. Hubs notices haircuts. Specifically what he calls "I hate my dad" haircuts. Cracks me up. We found a lot of interesting stores accidentally today and had a blast doin it together.

On the way home, we stopped at a fresh market down the block from our apartment. It hadn't been open during the week, so we walked through and scoped out some of the freshest fruits and veggies. Finally, we got brave enough to buy some pickles. When we found out how cheap they were, we were hooked. We brought home potatoes, garlic, onions, lemons, lettuce, and a pear. All fresh from the ground and looking absolutely delicious! Dinner posts will not be the same from here on out.

We bought a couple of Stella's from a street vendor and went home, threw our onion, a clove of garlic and some diced ham into a skillet with our chicken we bought the other day and had this concoction over a bed of chipotle couscous. (thanks mom for the chipotle cubes!) We're pretty proud of ourselves. Especially since every day we've been in this apartment, one of our neighbors has been cooking the most delicious-smelling foods and I'm certain they're purposely leaving their door open for the rest of us stuck eating hummus every meal of the day to smell it. Who's laughing now, neighbor?

I love today.

Cheers to the tourists who made us feel a little more at home. Or at least looked more lost than us.